Trustees report and financial statements 2020

IMAGE STRATEGIC REPORT GOVERNANCE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS OTHER INFORMATION THE ROYAL SOCIETY TRUSTEES’ REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 20 SCIENCE SHAPING THE WORLD WE LIVE IN 21 The Society’s fundamental purpose is to recognise, promote and support excellence in science and to encourage the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity. This is clear from the way we have responded to the pandemic. Fellows of the Royal Society and people we fund are contributing to the UK and global effort to tackle COVID-19. They are working on urgent research questions, as well as providing independent advice to national and international decision makers. The work includes research on the biology of the virus and therapies to combat it, longer term goals such as the development of vaccines and reviewing evidence to inform policy decisions. The Society used its convening power to support the response to the pandemic by establishing three groups. The Rapid Assistance in Modelling the Pandemic (RAMP) initiative brings modelling expertise from a diverse range of disciplines to support responses to the pandemic; the Data Evaluation and Learning for Viral Epidemics (DELVE) group, a multi-disciplinary group, takes a data-driven approach to learning about responses to the pandemic; and Science in Emergencies Tasking – COVID-19 (SET-C) draws on expertise to respond to requests for rapid advice on topics relevant to tackling the pandemic. These groups have carried out work on issues such as the protection offered by wearing facemasks, immunological responses to COVID-19 and the impact of reopening schools. The Society joined a group of publishers and scholarly communications organisations in a joint call to maximise the efficiency of peer review, ensuring that key work related to COVID-19 is reviewed and published as quickly and openly as possible. When schools closed across the country, the Society put together a list of resources, activities and videos that could be used to support home learning in science, technology, engineering and maths. The Society is currently supporting 1,065 active research fellows across the UK through our grants schemes, plus hundreds of PhD students, postdoctoral research assistants and technicians working across the natural sciences. Because of the pandemic, many researchers are unable to progress their work and there has been some job uncertainty within the research community, but other researchers have been working on areas linked to the pandemic or in related areas. Others are using the changes to our lifestyles that the pandemic has brought to carry out research that would not have been possible before. How the Society has supported the response to the pandemic Strategy in action continued Dr Daniel Streicker is a Sir Henry Dale Fellow alumnus at the University of Glasgow. His research is on managing viral emergence at the interface of bats and livestock, specifically around the transmission of rabies from vampire bats to humans and livestock in Peru. His work has also included how we can predict novel zoonotic diseases, which transfer from animals to humans. Dr Ritesh Kumar is a Newton International Fellow at the University of Hertfordshire . He has used deep learning methods to predict the smell or flavour of molecules based on their physical, chemical and structural properties. His recent research included work on an enhanced understanding of the basis of smell, and assessing the relationship between respiratory illnesses and loss of smell and taste. Dr Paula Koelemeijer is a University Research Fellow at Royal Holloway, University of London. She is carrying out research into understanding the landscapes of the deep Earth by analysing seismic signals at the Earth’s surface. She has been able to use the lockdown to study the impact of humans on seismic activity. Dr Katrina Lythgoe is a Sir Henry Dale Fellow at the University of Oxford. Her research area examines the evolutionary epidemiology of viral infections and multi-level adaptation of human viruses. She uses data analysis to study viruses that evolve rapidly and that can have an effect on entire populations and to study how responsive they are to intervention strategies.